If you’re a Markdown fan, then it’s likely that you’re always looking for a new editor with amazing capabilities. As of now, there are many of them on the Mac App Store, though they all differ in abilities and features. Some are just focused on writing (Byword, for instance), while others seem to concentrate more on including unique features that help you to do more than just write. The Markdown language is obviously more than just a tool you’d use for writing once in a while. It’s able to translate what you type into rich text or HTML without the need of a visual editor – and that’s what makes it so special.

Today I’m going to introduce a new type of Markdown editor to you. Instead of focusing just on distraction-free writing as most apps do, this one puts more of an emphasis on a special feature the developers call “combined view”. In addition to this, it has support for custom CSS, meaning that you can customize your document to many extents. The app is called “Valletta” and I’ll explain more on about after the break, so be sure to keep reading.

If you are a freelancer who gets paid by the hour, you might have used time-tracking apps (like Harvest) before. In fact, you might have already gone through the majority of them and decided on your favorite, but we come here today to change that, maybe.

We’re bringing you a look of the newest Harvest addition, the Harvest for Mac client, which expands on the web service’s features and brings them to your desktop.

Apps that let you upload, share and keep your files synced up everywhere are a dime a dozen. Perhaps the most popular alternative is Dropbox, and I don’t know about you but I am not a big fan of it. I don’t have much use for it, so I don’t really feel like setting it up in every one of my devices, it just feels like too much unnecessary work.

That’s why I jumped at the opportunity to review Drops. It’s a much simpler and down to earth cloud app. It also offers unlimited storage and cross-platform support. Interested?

While it is true that note-taking apps are a common sight these days, there are only a handful that are specifically made to stay on the menu bar such as Soho Notes, Rapid Note, and Scribblet 2. These menu bar note-taking apps are normally built with minimal features, an easy-to-navigate interface, and run silently in the background.

For today’s review, I’ll be taking a look at a relatively new menu bar notes app called NotesTab by FLIPLAB Ltd., the makers of popular menu bar apps MailTab and MenuTab for Facebook. With the latest update to version 1.2, let’s see if this new member of the family stands and delivers just as well.

If you spend any time at all with your nose in the realm of productivity software (and you know we do), then you’re probably aware of the splash that 6Wunderkinder made when they finally opened their super-secret new web app, Wunderkit, to public beta just a mere few weeks ago. By building on the success of Wunderlist (which many would agree is one of the most refined task-list managers on the market thus far), 6Wunderkinder designed a highly anticipated platform that has the potential to change the way we organize our life.

In a not entirely unexpected move, 6Wunderkinder released a Wunderkit client for both Mac and iPhone on the same day that the beta of the service went public, and those of us who utilize those platforms got a taste of what’s to come from 6Wunderkinder’s almost certain multi-platform roadmap. Today, I’m going to take a look at attempt number one at the Wunderkit client for Mac. Hit the jump to find out more.

The app market sure isn’t short on note-taking apps. From Notational Velocity to Evernote, you have pretty much any kind of note-taking that you would ever want or need. They all have different gimmicks or features, and some work better for some people than they do for others. However, none of them are really as simple to learn and use as the app that we are reviewing today.

It’s called Scrawl and it strips down all the shiny features of note-taking apps to leave only the necessary ones. Do you want to check it out?

Flashcards have long been a great way to study – whether you’re preparing for an exam, learning a new language, or want to memorize the flags of the world. Mental Case is an application for Mac, iPad, and iPhone which takes the concept of flashcards and makes them far more useful than they could ever be on card.

Today we’ll be taking a look at the Mac version of Mental Case. Could it make a big difference to your study? Read on to find out.

I’m sure you’re familiar with the many download managers available for Mac, such as JDownloader, Leech (which we reviewed in 2010) and others. The purpose of most of these apps is to help folks who have multiple downloads keep things neatly organized and packed into one app.

JDownloader even offers a special multi-link capability that lets you paste as many links as you wish into a box and the app will automatically start downloading them in order. This stuff is great for power users, but today I’m going to show you a new app that offers the same capability in a more simple manner, it’s called SpeedTao.(more…)

While it’s no secret that iBooks hasn’t been a runaway success as Apple had hoped, the company is trying their hand at revolutionizing the book industry once more -but this time they’ve shifted their efforts towards the education market. Along with the new iBooks 2, Apple introduced iBooks Author, their simplistic, yet feature-rich solution for creating textbooks, cookbooks, and just about any other kind of book, for the iPad.

In making the app both user-friendly and free, Apple is clearly striving to make publishing available “for the rest of us”. Although the app is free, many will argue that the price of staying within the Apple ecosystem is too high for the budding author. So do the benefits outweigh the negatives? Read on.

A big part of design is inspiration. Graphic and web designers don’t work in a vacuum, they browse around to see what’s come before, and use other designs as references and starting points. Collecting these little pieces of inspiration and reference can quickly crowd your browser’s bookmark folder or your computer’s pictures folder, so the developers of Sparkbox sought to create an easy tool for capturing and organizing these images. Let’s find out if Sparkbox can really help organize your digital inspiration!(more…)